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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28871199">it’s nothing to cry about, cause we’ll hold each other soon;</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainisabela/pseuds/captainisabela'>captainisabela</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band), WAYV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Keeper Kun, Light Angst, M/M, Maze Runner AU, Minor Angst, Runner Lucas, Temporary Character Death, i think it seesaws between light angst and hopeful, just a smidge, nobody is actually dead but its assumed at first !!, you dont have to have seen or read it ill explain !!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 06:41:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,988</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28871199</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainisabela/pseuds/captainisabela</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yukhei’s soul is torn between two truths that he has known to be constant during his time in the Glade: that Kun will split oceans to find Yukhei, and that no human has ever spent a night in the Maze and made it out alive. An unstoppable force versus an immovable object, Yukhei wonders who won."</p><p>or</p><p>au where kun decides that if one of them got to make it out of the maze alive, it would be yukhei</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Qian Kun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Challenge #4 — Awaken The World</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>it’s nothing to cry about, cause we’ll hold each other soon;</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello !!! it’s author reveals now so I would like to say hi and I hope you all enjoy reading !! :&gt;</p><p>since having a 3k word limit means that i needed to make the most of my words, i didn't explain the setting too much for those who aren't familiar with the Maze Runner, but I still would like this fic to be accessible to everyone, so ill leave a brief explanation here -- if you are familiar with this, you can skip :&gt;</p><p>title: i will follow you into the dark -- death cab for cutie</p><p>the setting of the Maze Runner is like this: inside a circular stone wall is a large grassy area with a forest and such -- this is the Glade. every month, one person is sent up through a sort of hatch and they are called Gladers (i think lol) and they have no memory of their life from before, and only remember their name after a short while. the Gladers created a survivable system. in this system are Runners. outside of this circular stone wall is a huge maze (the Maze). every morning, a door will open, and a different section of the maze will be available to explore. in the evening, the door will close for the night to open the following morning with access to another section. nobody has ever spent the night inside the maze and lived, which his why only those who are fast + have good stamina are allowed to be Runner and explore + memorise the maze to hopefully find a way to escape</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Glade is startlingly quiet.</p><p>It’s always this silent when they experience a loss like this. When it’s unnecessary, when it’s somebody important. Every single Glader can feel it, melancholy hanging heavy in the air. The sounds that the Maze makes at night are a little too sickening when there’s somebody in there that shouldn’t be.</p><p>	Yukhei had to scratch Kun’s name out himself. It was the hardest thing that he’s ever had to do in his time in the Glade (since he doesn’t remember much of anything from before). Normally this process is done by Kun, but the dead can’t really scratch their own name out, can they? The job was given to Yukhei for several reasons -- their closeness being the first. Yukhei was enamoured by Kun the moment they opened the hatch when he had first arrived, clung to him like a child and followed his steps as a Runner. This is also why Yukhei was given the chisel. He was going to replace Kun as Keeper.</p><p>	They let him go alone, and for that, Yukhei was thankful. While he and Kun were never a thing, they were <i>something</i>, when flowers bloomed within his chest upon seeing Kun, when Kun’s touches would linger ever so gently, when Kun decided that if only one person were to make it back into the Glade before the Maze sealed shut, it would be Yukhei. In the dark of the night, illuminated only by the lantern set on a stick ground into the earth, Yukhei whispered both his love confessions and his goodbyes.</p><p>	Yet, Yukhei thinks, as he retires to bed early with heartache as an excuse, Kun is strong, and has never gone back on his word. And Kun promised, after a humbling run, that if anything happened, he would always find his way back to Yukhei.</p><p>	Yukhei still has hope.</p><p>***</p><p>Yukhei awakes at dawn, before anyone else. The air is still, same as the night before, this time because Yukhei is the only one that is up. He knows that everyone had a long night — it’s part of what they have as a funeral procession. Stay up celebrating the life of whomever was lost and wake up late the next morning. It meant that Yukhei would be the only one awake when the Maze opened. </p><p>Quietly, Yukhei stands. There are a few hammocks under the canopy next to the Runner’s tent, in which he and the rest of the Runners sleep. Dejun and Yangyang are still slumbering in their hammocks, and Yukhei keeps his gaze away from the empty hammock next to his. Yukhei grabs his runner pack from where he keeps it under his hammock and enters the Runner’s tent.</p><p>Here, there is a large map of what they had memorised of the Maze. Yukhei’s hands shake where he grips the edge of the table, stomach rolling with something fearful. Kun had promised, <i>promised</i> Yukhei that nothing could ever separate them. But that was before Kun shoved him through the closing doors. Yukhei’s soul is torn between two truths that he has known to be constant during his time in the Glade: that Kun will split oceans to find Yukhei, and that no human has ever spent a night in the Maze and made it out alive. An unstoppable force versus an immovable object, Yukhei wonders who won.</p><p>It is the fourth day of the cycle today, so sections six and nine of the maze are going to be available. Yukhei prays that Kun remembered this and was able to navigate the Maze well enough to make his way there. If he didn’t, even if Kun were still alive, Yukhei would not be able to find him. Yukhei stares at the map for a long while. He still had at least an hour before the cool stone slid open to reveal the Maze entrance, and Yukhei was intent on studying the layout of the Maze until he could see it on the backs of his eyelids.</p><p>When the earth rumbles beneath him, Yukhei closes his eyes with a deep breath, and then slips his pack on and runs through the field before the noise of the Maze wakes anyone.</p><p>***</p><p>It’s an odd feeling, entering the Maze alone. The Runners just… always went together. It was easier to navigate and memorise with several brains together. There’s also other reasons that Yukhei doesn’t want to think about, right now. He needs to focus, anyway.</p><p>Yukhei shivers, the cool stone of the Maze makes the air colder, full of foreboding danger, a premonition of death itself. It’s quiet, too, normally when they run, they whisper quietly to each other. Their footsteps are light on the stone and they touch the vines crawling on the walls. By himself, Yukhei hears nothing but his breath and anxiety creeping behind him.</p><p>He wonders where Kun may have gone — they never thought that they would be in this situation and so they never planned on having a rendezvous point. So Yukhei just jogs, takes the Maze step by step, but still fast enough that he will be long gone before the other runners enter the Maze. </p><p>As he continues through the Maze with nothing to lead him, Yukhei thinks. Prepares himself, really, to live a life without Kun. It almost feels like giving up, to contemplate like this, but Kun would prefer that he be realistic. Yukhei was an idealist and Kun was very much of a realist, but it worked that way. Kun would bring Yukhei back to earth when his head floated in the clouds for a little too long, and Yukhei brought imagination into Kun’s life.</p><p>They worked this way a lot.</p><p>In many ways, they were opposites, but instead of letting that tear them apart, they only lifted each other up and lended their strength where it was needed. Yukhei really doesn’t know where he would be without Kun. Yukhei really doesn’t know where he will go without him, either.</p><p>Perhaps Yukhei is simply destined to roam the Maze in search of his lost love. </p><p>A new strength fuels Yukhei, then. With nothing to lose, he realises, he <i>can</i> stay, walking and walking through the labyrinth like Theseus until he finds his target. While he’s friends with everyone else, Kun means something entirely different to Yukhei, so much more, and despite having people who care about him within the Glade, Yukhei would simply throw it all away for a chance to find Kun once again.</p><p>***</p><p>Without a clock it’s difficult to track time. Inside the Glade, it’s a little easier when there’s open space and you can see the sun’s position in the sky. Here in the Maze, the stone walls loom overhead grimly, a reminder of constant oppression with every passing day. Yukhei thinks he’s been walking for hours, though.</p><p>He hasn’t heard any of the others yet, which is a good thing, but it also makes it difficult for Yukhei to know how long he has been in here. Kun is really great at tracking time — something that Yukhei lacks. Not being able to tell if the others have entered yet means that Yukhei could have been walking for a half hour, and they haven’t woken up yet, or he’s gotten so far ahead that they’ve entered and still haven’t caught up.</p><p>None of that matters, though, once Yukhei sees something. His breath catches on the thorns that have grown inside of his chest. In the corner of two walls, underneath thick vines, is a wristband. Yukhei steps up to the wall and squats, shifting the vines away to get a closer look, as if he doesn’t already know who it belongs to. It isn’t much — just an inch thick of brown leather with snaps on the ends, but it’s Kun’s and it’s <i>here</i>, in a section that wasn’t open yesterday. It meant that Kun had survived the night.</p><p>Yukhei takes it and snaps it onto his own wrist so that he doesn’t lose it, since he’s going to give it back to Kun once he finds him, anyway.</p><p>A new sort of hope fills Yukhei, the loss of Kun’s wristband was intentional — something that they all had devised in case one of them got lost. They would gradually shed little things off of their bodies, like accessories or socks or small trinkets that they could go without until they were found, and it would be used like a trail to them. So, at the next intersection, Yukhei fully expects to see another item of Kun’s somewhere. </p><p>He starts to run, then, eager to just… be with Kun again. Yukhei doesn’t want to say that he’s too attached, but what else can he do when it’s just them? There’s everyone else in the Glade, there’s Sicheng and Ten, and others, but it isn’t the same. Kun symbolises the only shred of hope that Yukhei carries anymore. </p><p>Without Kun, Yukhei can live but he won’t be <i>alive</i>.</p><p>When he gets to the next intersection, Yukhei searches intently for the next clue, hidden somewhere in the vines next to the entrance that Kun left to. It doesn’t take long for Yukhei to find it — a small piece of wood whittled into a dog. It makes Yukhei smile, a melancholy one, but still a smile. This was something that Yukhei made for Kun, not too long after he arrived at the Glade. Everyone joked that Yukhei followed Kun around like a lost puppy, so that is what Kun began to call him. With this, Kun would have his puppy with him wherever he went. It was almost as if Kun knew that it would be Yukhei to find him.</p><p>It’s a little longer, this time, that Yukhei has to walk straight. Yukhei has memorised this section well, and knows that they’re in the outskirts of the Maze (allegedly — it’s only the furthest that they have traveled. None of them know for sure if that is the end or not). A little bit of panic swells inside Yukhei’s chest, shifting the thorns so that they poke at his ribs. It must be near afternoon now, and minutes tick by until the Maze closes. Yukhei thinks that maybe they’ll be alright if they get trapped in the Maze for one more night — Kun survived, after all, and together they’ll be more efficient. But it isn’t ideal either, and the fact that Kun survived the night doesn’t mean that he is <i>okay</i>.</p><p>Finally, Yukhei reaches another intersection, a T - shape with the wall to his right as the top, and a hall to the left making the other length. Yukhei vaguely realises that this is the furthest that they have ever gone — hope that there was more beyond this wall crushed with every mile they spent walking without an opening to another piece of the Maze. This means that Kun is either on the outer length, or somewhere back inside, and Yukhei prays that it’s further back in any mile closer to the Glade. It’s odd, wishing to be back inside, closed off to the outer world, but being stuck inside the Maze is a fate worse than perhaps death itself.</p><p>When Yukhei approaches the intersection, the first place he looks in the adjoining hallway, praying that there is something of Kun’s hiding beneath the vines. There isn’t, and Yukhei lets out a frustrated little sob, nervous and impatient. Then, only a few seconds later, Yukhei hears shuffling down the hallway, and fear, but also hope, rolls inside his stomach like a buoy over tumultuous ocean waves. The foreboding of something unknown, and the anticipation of the return of something missing don’t mix well.</p><p>Yukhei still can’t quite see it yet, just a blob of a shadow deep down the hallway, but he can hear it, and he can’t quite place a name on the sound. Just… the movement of a creature. So Yukhei walks towards it cautiously, ready to run if it isn’t Kun, but still hopeful. Sicheng would have told him to just leave, but maybe Yukhei is a little naive. Something in his gut tells him that everything will be alright, though.</p><p>A little closer now, if Yukhei squints he can make out a humanoid figure, and he sincerely hopes that it truly is Kun and not the spirits of those lost to the Maze. </p><p>But then — the figure calls out to Yukhei, and he breaks out into a desperate run. “Xuxi,” it had whispered, the sound travelling farther than it normally would have if not supported by the tight stone surrounding them. Kun, Kun, Kun, the only word that Yukhei can think as he runs, almost blindly. His heart is swollen with yellow petals of euphoria, thorns receding into the branches sprouted in his ribcage and buds finally blooming once again.</p><p>“Kun-ge,” Yukhei breathes, as he gets closer. The more that Yukhei can see him, the worse for wear Kun appears, but none of that matters right now when Yukhei knows that he’s <i>here</i>. Kun stumbles down the hall, leaning against the stone, but he makes good progress, and Yukhei feels relieved that at least Kun can still move fast enough to hopefully exit with Yukhei before the Maze closes.</p><p>Emotion builds in Yukhei’s chest, branches and flowers pressing against his sternum like he might burst. He feels it, vines squirming under his skin, and Yukhei is just so <i>happy</i> to see Kun again, loves him so, so, much. When he’s close enough to see Kun’s facial features, Yukhei breaks out into a huge smile, grins even wider when he watches Kun smile back. Finally, they meet, and Yukhei nearly makes skid marks on the floor with the way he tries to slow down so that he doesn’t crash into Kun.</p><p>“Kun-ge,” Yukhei repeats in a whine, wrapping is arms around Kun. He shivers when Kun presses desperate kisses into his neck, and Yukhei knows that Kun missed him, too. Kun starts to laugh a little bit, full of joy and relief, and they stand there for a moment, embraced, and Yukhei feels like he could fly to the moon.</p><p>Kun pulls back, but his hands stay on Yukhei’s shoulders, grip tight with the fear that they’ll be separated again if he let go. “I’m so happy to see you, Xuxi, my dear puppy,” There’s dirt and blood caked over the side of Kun’s face, and Yukhei wipes it off affectionately. “Fuck,” Kun breathes, pulling Yukhei into a gentle kiss. </p><p>“Missed you so much, was so scared,” Yukhei whispers, after they pull away. He can’t feel much of his surroundings, but Kun’s breath is warm in the space between them, the touch of his skin being comfort and safety. When they’re together, they can do anything. Kun lies his head on Yukhei’s shoulder, again, face pressed into his neck, and he holds Yukhei like he never wants to let go again.</p><p>“Xuxi… it’s so awful in here, at night.” Yukhei’s stomach rolls. Obviously, it wasn’t pleasant, but it isn’t something that Yukhei wants to think about either. “I’m so glad it was you who got out. I couldn’t imagine letting you go through all of this.” Beating heavily, Yukhei’s heart swells plump and full of adoration and gratefulness.</p><p>He loves Kun so dearly.</p><p>Yukhei holds Kun a little tighter. “I wish you didn’t have to do that, though, I wish you <i>didn’t</i>. Would’ve stayed with you until the end, <i>should have</i> stayed with you. Wish you didn’t have to go alone.” Yukhei feels so guilty, wishes that at least they could have been together, but there is no sense in dwelling on the past — what is important is that Kun is alright and that they get home.</p><p>Kun separates from him, and Yukhei wants to chase him, but he knows that time is running out and they must leave, lest they fall into this situation again. But, Yukhei has an iron grip on Kun’s hand as he leads Kun back through the Maze.</p><p>***</p><p>They walk for half an hour before they come across the other runners. On their journey, Kun spoke of the horrid creatures that stalk through the Maze in the dark, robotic arachnids with steel spikes for feet. Just hearing about them made Yukhei’s heart race with fear, and Kun just looks so tired. They are both due for a nap when they get back to the Glade.</p><p>Hendery was the first to see them, sprinting to them to pull them into a crushing hug. Then Dejun comes, and soon Sicheng and Ten and Yangyang do the same, and maybe they cry a little, but it won’t be spoken of once back inside. Yukhei was thankful for their alone time, on the way back, but he’s also thankful that they didn’t complete the journey by themselves, either. It was rejuvenating to be complete once again, all seven of them running (jogging, really, because Kun isn’t in the best of shape to <i>run</i>.) through the Maze to get back to the Glade.</p><p>Once they arrive into the open air, everyone else crowds around them, too. Even through his exhaustion, Yukhei can see that Kun is filled with joy, too, letting himself be bombarded with hugs and questions. Kun lets Joohyun drag him over to the healing tent to check over him and take care of any injuries, then Taeyong and Jungwoo want to know more about the creatures. It isn’t until late at night that they both finally get to rest.</p><p>This time, they share a hammock. They don’t normally, because Kun is an early riser and it’s difficult to leave with another body without one of them eating dirt, but they figure that it’ll be alright tonight. Kun is going to sleep for a while, and Yukhei doesn’t plan on leaving his side any time soon.</p><p>As Kun breathes peacefully against his neck, Yukhei feels complete once again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi again !! thank you so so much for reading :&gt; this was super fun to write and a little wonder is such a cool and exciting fest to write for !!!! so thank you to all the mods who made it possible and thank you to all of the other writers and of course the readers too !!!</p><p>If you’d like to find me elsewhere, you can find me on <a>+twitter</a> !!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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